The Persephone Programis the result of an international collaboration between space agencies, including private ones, whose purpose is to create an autonomous «Space Factory».

Persephone in Greek mythology was the personification of vegetation and fertility. When she used to return to Earth she made the soil bloom again as she passed. The Persephone program can help the entire humanity contributing to space colonization. But also planet Earth by reducing pollution and resource extraction. Things that we can no longer neglect !

Space Factory is a space station that works autonomously, where it's possible to create components of systems implied in space colonization and to assembly them without human work. Nowadays, rockets can't carry more complex structures -used both for scientific research or Universe long-term stay- because dimensions can't overtake limits imposed by the rocket's capacity. What's more, satellites or telescopes could be damaged on the Earth before the launch.

These problems can be overcome thanks to the additive manufacturing technologies in the Factory, that create parts starting from material sent from Earth. It can also pull it out from asteroids passing nearby: they are caught and their components (especially minerals) are exploited. This is "asteroid mining" and reduces the use of terrestrial resources, is faster, and makes our presence in the space easier to be realized. Particularly, oxygen and water can be sent to those stations occupied by humans, whereas gold, iron, nickel, and titanium are exploited for the specific components. Hydrogen and oxygen are used for carriers' motors.

Another way to become independent by Earth resources can be SPACE RECYCLE, which is composed of: collecting space debris, disposing satellites at the end of their lifetime, and recycling waste from human colonies or space stations.

The possible customers of this service could be:

-RESEARCH GROUPS for assistance and construction of orbiting telescopes and labs, but also space probes;

-TOURIST SPACE STATIONS AND ORBITING COLONIES for supplying without ground launches, timely assistance in case of emergency, expand and/or replace modules;

-TERRESTRIAL CUSTOMERS: request for MADE IN SPACE products such as jewelry, clothes, or tools, brought to the Earth by reusable rockets, space planes, or 3D printed capsules. Also for the production on the orbit of satellites.

In this way we are helping our planet, the entire humanity on space colonization, we are making it easier to have satellite services and also creating a new kind of economy. Plus it can be also a solution for the space debris problem, collecting and recycling them

Innovative docking systems are essential in the Space Factory in order to join new components with material and assembling pieces of the spacecraft: difficult maneuvers are performed thanks to many sensors, but they consume a lot of fuel and it's very difficult because components have different rotation speeds. Recent experiments as PACMAN and TED take advantage of magnetic and electromagnetic interactions: the chaser joins the target by showing their interfaces which will attract each other. This will use electrical attraction and movements will be more accurate. Space agencies use different docking systems, but recently the IDSS(International Docking System Standard) has been taken as a model in order to join several components to the same base.

Having more complex structures in the space is useful: their lives can be longer and it can result in space tourism. We hope to create stations where humans can stay for a while, for instance, a spacecraft orbiting around the Moon or reuse non-working satellites. Bigger telescopes could collect more information.